A Substitution for Your Name Will Never Be Enough
by TheMadKatter13
Summary: Of course Wade has a name on his wrist. Whether or not it's legible, well, that's just between him and the knife he uses to carve names into his wrist with. AU.


**I actually just read Atsvie's fic (AO3 works/572131) like an hour ago, and I started writing a headcanon for a more angsty alternative in my Review (on my phone, of course, because why not), and half an hour later I was like "Woops" when AO3 goes "you're 1k+ over your Comment character limit asshole". So then I had to go through the agony of posting this from my phone. So... hopefully you don't mind this Inspired By, Atsvie.**

 **Original AO3 post date: 2016-01-09.**

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The scars fucked up his skin to the point that the name on his wrist wasn't readable anymore, but the name that used to be written there, only visible now in distorted black scratches, Wade can't remember anymore either; it's become another infinite hole in his memory.

So every time he meets someone new that he falls in love with, he imagines it's theirs. He'll scrawl permanent marker across his wrist for mild crushes, carve them into the scars for when he falls deeps. Sometimes he puts the names other places too, like how a young girls covers notebook with initials in hearts; he'll do the same to his arms and chest and legs and he tried his back once, a massive one, but even after he ripped his arm off and held it behind himself, he couldn't get it right. He probably shoulda torn off his dominant hand.

But then he meets Spidey and wow he's never had a bigger crush on someone, and he finds himself carving SM on his skin and doodling it on walls and yeah okay he totally bought a sketchbook and fills it with SM/DP fanart (which gets a ton of hits online thanks). He bugs Spidey for his real name, not because it'll mean anything to his wrist, but just because he wants to know everything about the man.

After weeks of incessant begging, Spidey proposes a game: "one guess a night, and if you guess my name right, I'll take my mask off too". Wade's first guess of Rumplestilzchen doesn't get him a maskless Spidey, but it does earn him a laugh, which is just as good in his book.

Every guess every day after just earns him a small chuckle and a head shake. Day 52, chillin' on a roof with some post-patrol Mexican, he guesses 'Peter', and Spidey just freezes. To Wade's surprise, he suddenly takes off his mask.

"Peter Parker," the too-gorgeous-for-words boy introduces.

Wade takes off his mask (not the first time around Spidey), and introduces (a little awestruck) "Wade Wilson."

Spidey falters. "I... never heard your last name before." He's fidgetting now. Which is super weird.

"Yeah, got that whole alliteration thing going. 'Wade Winston Wilson'. Your middle name a 'P' too?"

Peter just stares at him oddly. "No..." he says slowly. "Benjamin." He's still staring at him oddly.

"Do I still have chimichanga on my face or what?" Wade asks, scrubbing a glove down his face. He'd be a little more subconscious about his scars if Spidey hadn't already disabused him of the notion that he cared at all.

"No, I just... You're scarred all over, right?" he asks suddenly. Which is a little unusual because nonsequitors are usually saved for Wade's dialogue.

"You've seen me in my birthday suit, how many times? I know you said you don't care but that's going a little out of the way, don'tcha think?"

"I've just never seen your wrist is all. I always wondered who your soulmate might be."

"You and me both, Petey," Wade says as he strips off his glove and rolled up his sleeve. The 'Spidey' he'd actually carved there this morning is gone, and the marker he'd done over it had been mostly rubbed away, leaving only streaks and smudges over the distorted scribbles. They weren't even familiar scribbles because the skin always healed different and the scars always moved so no piece was ever in the same place twice (well, it might have, he just couldn't remember that either).

Petey looks distinctly horrified at the sight of his wrist, so much so that Wade tries to cover it back up immediately. Spidey's hand flashes forward and tiny little bars of steel shaped like fingers wrap around his wrist. Before he can warn Spidey he really shouldn't surprise-grab a mercenary, Peter is rolling up the sleeve of the grabby-hand wrist, twisting Wade's arm till his own wrist was upright.

Right there, on his wrist, actually, from the inside of his elbow _down to_ his wrist, was carved WADE WINSTON WILSON in thin, silver scars. Wade couldn't stop staring even when Peter started talking.

"How would you feel if the name on your wrist was 'Peter Benjamin Parker'?" Spidey asked softly.

"I'd feel sorry for you, being stuck with me," Wade replies immediately and without thought. Because as much as he's in love with Spider-Man, as much as he loves every minute they spend together, he knows he's a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad guy, and an honest-to-Spidey's-god bad influence. Not to mention not what someone like Spidey deserves.

"What if I don't feel sorry for having your name on my wrist at all?"

Petey's voice is still soft, and when Wade finally tears his eyes from the impossibly long scar (seriously, what kind of a dick was fate to put his name that big on this poor kid's wrist?), Spidey's eyes are wet.

"Oh geez, see, this is why I didn't want my soulmate to find me. Who wouldn't cry finding out I was their soulmate? I would cry, I would - goddammit baby boy let go. I can't get the hell away from you till ya let go of my damn wrist."

But instead of letting him go, Wade is suddenly toppling forward right into Peter's lips. It's awkward because their teeth clack together and tears are squeezing out from Peter's clenched eyes and Wade's eyes are wide open, and it's entirely too short.

"Was that on purpose?" Wade asks when he's settled back again. Well, physically. Inside there's a party going on in his head with entirely too much screaming, confetti, and fangirling. Peter gives him a flat look.

"What gave you that idea."

"Well, I just wanted to check before I did this."

And he promptly tackled Peter off the ledge and onto the roof. That kiss actually hurt more and there may have been complaining about a broken tooth and a sprained wrist, but Wade was too busy with third, fourth, and fifth kisses that melted together and really turned into too many to count.

FINIS

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 **Save an author. Rec the post: reblog the thing (themadkatter13fanfiction tumblr , post/136929587783). :D**


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